This book bridges a gap in scholarship by foregrounding the contribution of women to the nineteenth-century Lied. It consolidates recent research in the genre, and develops an alternative narrative that embraces an understanding of the contributions of women. Composers including Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Josephine Lang are considered with a variety of analytical approaches. In addition to the focus on the history and theory of the Lied, chapters explore the cultural and sociological background, as well as engaging with gender studies, performance and pedagogical contexts. The range of subject matter reflects the interdisciplinary nature of current research and the energy it generates among scholars and performers.

Aisling Kenny lectures in musicology, music analysis and vocal studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology. A musicologist and soprano, her research interests include women's music in the nineteenth century and text-music relationships in art song and choral music.

Susan Wollenberg is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, Fellow and Tutor of Lady Margaret Hall and Lecturer at Brasenose College. She has published widely on various research interests, including women composers, historical keyboard music, social history of music in Britain and Schubert's instrumental works.

Part 1 Contexts for Women's Lieder, I: Blurring the gendered dichotomies: issues of gender and creativity for the female Lied composer. Absence and dialogue: Pauline von Decker in a performing and cultural context. In pursuit of a single flame: Fanny Hensel's 'musical salon'. Part 2 Individual Composers and their Lieder, I: Early 19th Century: 'Der Jungling und Das Madchen': Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn and the Zwolf Lieder, op. 9. Functions of piano introductions in the Lieder of Josephine Lang. Clara Schumann's 'Liebst du um Schonheit' and the integrity of a composer's vision. Part 3 Individual Composers and their Lieder, II: Later 19th Century: Pauline Viardot-Garcia's 'Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne' and the genre of Russian romance. (Re)claiming space for Ingeborg von Bronsart's Wildenbruch Lieder, op. 16. Cyclic organization, narrative and self-construction in Ethel Smyth's Lieder und Balladen, op. 3 and Lieder, op. 4, Cornelia Bartsch; Contrasting concepts of love in two songs by Alma Schindler(-Mahler) and Gustav Mahler. Part 4 Contexts for Women's Lieder, II: 'Und das hat mit ihrem Singen, Die Lore-Ley gethan': subjectivity and objectification in two Heine settings. Echoes of the Lied: women's vocal repertoire in 19th-century Ireland. Women composers of Lieder: selected sources.